Saturday, March 19, 2005

What? It wasn't the Israelis?

The Times has something to add on suspicsions of Syrian involvement in Rafik Harari's murder:

Days before Rafik Hariri’s assassination last month, the Lebanese politician had played host to Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader, at his mansion in west Beirut. Mr Hariri had a warning for his old friend: the Syrians were after them.

“He told me that in the next two weeks it was either going to be me or him,” Mr Jumblatt told The Times. “Clearly he thought something was going to happen.” [...]

The Times has learnt that Mr Hariri had enraged the Syrians by inspiring a UN resolution demanding that Syria stop interfering in Lebanon. US and UN officials repeatedly warned Syria not to harm Mr Hariri in the months before his death.

In mid-January, under pressure from Damascus, the Lebanese Government withdrew his 70-strong security detail, and immediately after his death the scene of the bombing was swept to remove any evidence of Syrian complicity ....

1 Creaks:

It seems a touch rash to assume that the al-Hariri assassination was Syrian in origin. If we look at this as part of the continuing fight over water then Israel seems a more likely culprit than Syria. Best wishes,Barry O'Connell